Mailbag: You can still find good people in Corona del Mar

I want everyone to know that there are still some honest people left in this world.

Last week my wife and I, with another couple, ate for the first time at Pirozzi in Corona del Mar. I mistakenly left my wine bag at the restaurant. Although the reservation was made by our friends, the folks at Pirozzi learned my name and phone number and called to tell me they had it.

Even more impressive, my son and his family ate there two or three weeks ago for my grandson’s birthday. My grandson unknowingly dropped his money saved from his birthday and Christmas on the floor and left without it.

Pirozzi tracked down my son and returned more than $200. That is character, honesty and extremely admirable. Congratulations to some honest folks who serve delicious food. My faith in mankind is rejuvenated.

John W. Hamilton

Newport Beach

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Recognize the Armenian genocide

I will always be grateful that my grandfather, Joseph H. Weber (name anglicized at Ellis Island), made the decision as a teenager to leave his village in the Ukraine, get on a cargo ship and come to the United States in 1915. The events leading to the overthrow of Russia’s czar were already in full swing, and I could easily have ended up as a citizen of the Soviet Union if the czarists, revolutionaries, and then Stalinists, didn’t slaughter my family first.

That same year, a massacre of up to a million and a half Armenians by the Ottomans began just “down the road” (around 900 miles) from where my grandfather had lived. The Armenian genocide of 1915-16 foretold a bloody 20th Century that would see many more genocides.

Here, in the 21st Century, we have almost unlimited access to information as the Internet has grown. But so many of our fellow humans still behave as if they’re in the 20th century or earlier, by lying, denying and obfuscating. Denying the Holocaust is a crime in 14 countries. Yet millions of people, including the government of Turkey, deny that the Armenian genocide was actually a genocide.

We need to be better than that. Lying about and denying historical facts must never be accepted. Denial of facts can lead to dire consequences — more genocides, more wars without justification. Even climate change denial is leading to bad results.

While a candidate for president, Barack Obama said that the Armenian genocide was, in fact, a genocide. As president, he needs to say it. Just Sunday, the leader of my church, Pope Francis, said that the killings were a genocide. This angered Turkey but the Holy Father spoke the truth.

This month marks 100 years since the Armenian genocide began. Let us honor those victims and all victims of genocide by resolving to tell the truth.

Joseph A. Weber

Costa Mesa